WND

Another Trump win? 'Death to Khamenei' protests continue in Iran

Analysts see sanctions fueling collapse of mullah regime

Art Moore, co-author of the best-selling book "See Something, Say Nothing," entered the media world as a PR assistant for the Seattle Mariners and a correspondent covering pro and college sports for Associated Press Radio. He reported for a Chicago-area daily newspaper and was senior news writer for Christianity Today magazine and an editor for Worldwide Newsroom before joining WND shortly after 9/11. He earned a master's degree in communications from Wheaton College.

As anti-government protests continue for a fifth day, featuring chants of “Death to Khamenei,” the supreme ruler, the Islamic regime is faced with signs of economic and political collapse, according to an analysis.

President Trump’s announcement May 8 of withdrawal from the nuclear agreement negotiated under Barack Obama and the new administration’s planned economic measures against Iran were the catalyst, contends the Middle East Media Research Institute, noting that on May 26 large-scale protests took place in central Tehran that lasted several days.

The latest protest began Sunday after the Iranian currency, the rial, hit a record low against the U.S. dollar.

But the messages chanted by demonstrators and displayed on signs convey much more than anxiety over economic woes, with declarations such as “Death to the Dictator,” “Death to Palestine” and “No to Gaza, No to Lebanon, I Will Give My Life for Iran.”

MEMRI analysts A. Savyon and Yigal Carmon said that “even if the protests die down or are repressed by the regime for a while, they will eventually recur and intensify, because the Iranian regime can offer no solution for the economic crisis except by changing its regional and nuclear policies.”

More than 40 percent of Iran’s population is unemployed while the mullah-led regime continues to fund Hamas terrorists in the Palestinian territories, Hezbollah in Lebanon, rebels in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq and President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

As WND reported, emboldened by new sanctions imposed by the United States in the wake of the cancellation of the nuclear agreement, Iranian citizens increasingly have engaged in acts of civil disobedience and protests intended ultimately to bring about the overthrow of the mullah-led Islamic regime. On Monday, protesters clashed with police as they surrounded the Iranian parliament with chants of “death to Khamenei” and “death to the dictator,” the first such confrontation after similar demonstrations rocked the country at the start of the year

MEMRI pointed out the so-called nuclear deal with Iran, the Joint Plan of Action, was not a “deal” in the first place, due to Iran’s insistence that it not be a signed agreement but rather a joint plan of action approved by a U.N. Security Council resolution. Trump announced his intention to re-impose the nuclear sanctions that had been lifted after the adoption of the resolution and to impose additional unprecedented economic sanctions.

Iranian officials contend there is no objective reason for the currency crash, but the protests clearly demonstrate the public’s lack of faith in the regime, which only exacerbates the country’s economic instability.

MEMRI notes Iranian officials charge the demonstrations are the result of a plot by the Americans and the “Zionists,” Israel, claiming their foes are employing psychological warfare against Iran since they are unable to confront it militarily.

Regime officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have threatened protesters — “disruptors of the economic order” — with severe punishment, including the death penalty.

Iranian judiciary chief Ayatollah Amoli Larijani warned on June 26 that “the regime would not, under any circumstances, compromise with the rioters” and that “the disruption of order would result in severe punishments … including the death penalty, imprisonment of up to 20 years and the seizing of property.”

“The security forces must identify [the rioters] as soon as possible and turn them over to the judiciary,” he added.

At a June 26 judiciary conference, President Rohani said: “Will America win the psychological, economic and political war against the Iranian people? … No! Because the Iranian people will not give up its revolution and its values.”

Rohani said the “foremost goal of the Americans, or the enemies of the regime, is to break the faith and the hope of the [Iranian] people.”

A Khamenei adviser and former IRGC commander, Yahya Rahim Safavi, said “the satanic triangle consisting of America, the Zionist regime and [the Saudi royal family] Aal Sa’ud wants to weaken Iran’s might and spark resentment and despair among the people.”

MEMRI concludes the Iranian regime’s unwillingness to change means “the economic deterioration is likely to continue, triggering even harsher popular criticism and protests against the regime leadership.”

“The economic crisis is bound to deepen in the coming year, and the internal collapse, triggered by economic factors, is likely to spread to the political sphere.”